Hawkinge, Kent.
Rule No. 9 for this one....if you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
Velominti - rules.
It did rain, and rain, and then just when we thought it stopped, it rained again.
Continuing our quest to cover Kent, we had our second route out from Lyminge, this time heading East and down to the Channel Tunnel terminal, around Hawkinge.
From the village hall car park in Lyminge, we headed back through the village and on to Station Road, turning right towards the village welcome sign. On the left is Greenbanks and, between the doctors surgery and the road is a track that is the start of the byway out of the village, this is a steep tricky ride, concrete and old tarmac up to a muddy trail.
(sems popular with motorbikes).
It heads out to the south east between brambles, a good trail, alongside the golf course, you then exit onto Teddars Leas Road, which we followed around to the bridleway start on the right.
(its about 750 yrds, at the Shearins Bungalow site)
A good route, between fields, tree covered and dips down at the end out onto the road. Here we turned right, down towards Peene, its a quick steep descent with a sharp left hander at the end, leading onto the bastard that is Danton Lane.
This road runs alongside the channel tunnel terminal, it was wet now, really pissing down, and quite frankly miserable. But in an odd way I enjoy the crappy weather and my waterproof sock full up with water make for hard pedalling. We took the right hand fork on the junction at the top of the hill onto Crete Road West, this is a great lane, up over the terminal looking out to sea, with the channel a grey squally mess.
Following the lane along further it dips under the main A20 and then out to meet the busy A260 Canterbury road, some rather shifty crossing skills got us over the road.
Crete Road East now climbs at about 12% up onto the cliffs above Folkestone, we follow the road here for half a mile and just past the houses opposite the closed lane on the right, is an unadopted road on the left.
This is according to some maps "Cut Throat Lane", a good ride across open fields (a white lane on OS maps, always a mystery those!), leading down to join the Alkham Valley Road.
By this time my makeshift OS map was getting a bit soggy, so we headed right along the road, to find the next section of offroad.
With the weather still terrible, and quite fun really, we (well I) totally mis-judged the distance and we ended up taking an early exit on Standen Lane, this led us confusingly towards Hawkinge, where I lost my bearing a bit.
However, at the village the sky cleared, I managed to fold the wet map and get it into my pocket, now resembling a tissue after a trip through the washing machine, it would be used only in dire need.
We took another couple of turns through the village missing my intended routes, and taking a cheeky footpath we finally got back on track, the footpath goes through the woods and out past horse paddocks down to a roundabout at Milgate Farm.
The footpath exit brings you out next to the entrance to the cricket club, and we were back on track, taking this lane leads you up and into the woods and onto the next bridleway, at the right hand corner just past the club is the start. This is a lovely trail through Reinden wood, heavy usage by horses, but flat and wide through the woods. We exit at the end of the woods and head out onto the bridle way north east across the fields towards Swingfield.
Onto Boyinton Lane we turned left and followed the road out to the junction with the A260, and onto Reece Lane.
We turned left right heading back on our loop now, onto Hoad Road, following the lane until the next bridleway, at about a mile the road bears to the left and the bridleway is on the right. (the trail straight ahead is a byway).
Here it runs down into a wood to a gate, and then into an open field, up and down a dip and back alongside the woods to the exit on the right, some parts are awkward grass covered tracks.
Out from here onto Ridge Row, we rode straight down to Paddlesworth to join the next off road section. This is another bridleway heading west.
This is another great flowing bridleway between a hedge and fence, down and across a field to a complete mystery, no regular traffic, or signs of horses. walkers etc, so using our best judgement we just headed for what looked like a lane on the far side of the field, it's a shame when this happens and you feel a bit of a failure for not picking up the trail, or working out where it should be.
We found the end......
and then the start of the next one on the other side of the road.
This is our last bridleway over fields heading back to Lyminge, its a good one, grassy and flowing, a few gates to get through and a section through a farmyard and down through a wooded section, there is a nice long downhill section at the end running to the village.
And we're back... despite the weather, it was again great to be out seeing more of the county.
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